http://esmerilracing.com/

I bought this kit during the Christmas special of 2007. I purchased the kit for $5000 without engine management. At the time of this purchase this was the single most powerful turbo kit that one could buy for the RX8.

Click Picture to begin Slideshow:

Track Review

So I did a track day today. I had to call it quits since my gauge pod came off my dash and was flopping around, making it difficult to take corners whilst trying to hold the gauge pod. I did get a good impression of the kit though.

Ambient = 60 degrees.
Session run time = max of 20 minutes.
AFRs = tuned to 10.2-11.0 @ 10psi
Tires = Azenis RT 615s, 30% thread left.
Max track straight = 1/8 mile

Well, there was a little smoking (small puff from under hood) as the heat shielding got further settled into high heat use. I did a nice warmup lap before I got her into boost before every session.

Cars I murdered on the straights (couldn’t catch me, I just kept pulling away):

C5 z06 vette
another c5 z06 vette
04 GTO
Elise
R32 Volkswagen
G35
s2000
05 M3

Watching me pull hard from a vette is truly an exhilarating experience. Truly this power/weight ratio is something to be reckoned with!

In the corners: I had some pretty bad tires (well I would say maybe they were at allseason stickiness at this point), but I have enough experience with the RT-615 tires to know that they are far from their prime.

Typically a huge point of the kit is the oversized turbo for the RX8 application. Usually this size of turbo is better suited to a V8-V12 application due to the large amount of lag that would be present upon trying to use it with smaller engines. Well in practical use the huge turbo stayed spooled up over the entire course. I learned that instead of being able to go from WOT to slightly off WOT like I would have been able to do N/A I had to take my foot slightly more off the throttle to get the BOV to activate or else I would get some slight surge in the higher revs. Easy enough, its only a minor change in driving style after the first few laps. This could be avoided, however, by using a sequential BOV like the HKS SSQV.

The power!

Having a huge turbo spooled up over the entire track has its ups and downs. I no longer had to stay at the brink of 8-9K to achieve max power over the course, I took the entire course 1 gear higher than normal, which I thought was a very nice change from constantly shifting to stay in the narrow upper powerband of the N/A engine. The bad: when approaching the corner I would heel-toe and this would blow off the boost. But don’t let this fool you! That boost gauge my say 0psi in the corner, but the turbo is still at full spin! Anything but the most precise foot throttle movements will bring the turbo online and give a near instant 6-10psi and its accompanying 300+hp. And I’m talking slight! At first it was a bit uncontrollable and I left the DSC on. As I became more used to how much pedal movement would activate the boost in the corner I took the DSC off. I did some pretty nice powerslides I must say. It really was surprising how easy it is to control this car, even in its new high power state!

The sound:

People who know me and my setup from other track days remarked this about the sound:

Sounds super aggressive, the spool up sounds really aggressive, and I like the wastegate to atmosphere, really lets them know you are boosting. and that BOV is nice and mean, just a massive woosh

About the noise of wastegate to atmosphere:
It is less than the catless midpipe that I had on last year.

THE HEAT!

Well, first off, the heat shielding and the exhaust wrap held up nicely, even with the wrapped radiator pipes touching the downpipe had zero problems with structural integrity.

It did get super hot though, at 60 degree ambient, boosting pretty continuously at 10psi for 20 minutes, oil temps were about 220 Fahrenheit. Water was around the same also. As I kept hammering WOT every chance I got, I noticed the coils starting to overheat a bit also, I started getting some misfires. I was running the stock plugs 7s and 9s and had no problems with ping or detonation. Probably lucky on my part so I will switch to all 9′s before the next event.

Sure the temperatures sound good in its current state but I’m positive that a vented hood, A/C removal, and radiator upgrade will be the gold standard for anyone that wants to seriously track a 300+hp RX8. A third oil cooler is looking like a very good option at this point.

The intercooler held up great! I could feel hot air on the inlet side and nice cold air on the exit side.

Wastegate held up great also! Steady 10psi every time I boosted, no surprises or weird noises.

Overall:

Esmeril Turbo on track = car feared and revered by everyone. I got a new respect from the BMW and vette guys as they see the rx8 as a serious challenger.

The heat = Needs several upgrades for track sessions, but looks just fine for street and autocross use.

Parts quality = Everything preformed exactly as it should, BOV blew off when it should, wastegate had no chatter and opened smoothly each time, turbo spooled more and more quickly the hotter it got, sounded great no smoking even after hammering it. Heat shielding worked great (even though I added some extra aluminum tape than what comes in the kit) Tapped oil pan worked great!

Two thumbs up

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All the welds look amazing, there is not one flaw in the craftsmanship of this item.

Overall it weighs about 7 lbs by my guess.

Here are a few pics to tantalize. I will install this when the weather gets better here. Granted the real test won’t be till I get a 95+ degree track day in as of right now I would feel comfortable paying much more than this radiator sells for. Truly is a work of art, from the welds, to the material, to the size and build.

Just sitting there it screams performance!

In comparison to the stock radiator:

• Thicker
• Less fin density (fins spaced apart farther)
• All-aluminum construction
• Better performing

This is a griffin source design. Griffin makes very high performance radiators for circle track and NASCAR applications. http://www.griffinrad.com/

Click on Pic to view other pictures.

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Getting the parts required for this has taken me around 3-4 months.

I bought the FEED gear used from Murix, great guy. He said it took him 3 months to get from Japan new.

$600

Can be bought new from http://www.mazdaparts.com for $677 plus probably $50 in shipping

http://www.mazdaparts.com/ProductDet…000-1156400947

or http://www.japanparts.com for $726

Then I had to get the Mazda bearing Kit, which are the two bearings for the main pinion, the two bearings for the axles, the three oil seals, and the crush washer.

Diff bearings- 011827350A (2ea) MSRP-56.80ea Website-45.44ea
Axle seals- P04327238A (2ea) MSRP-8.25ea Website-6.60ea
Pinion seal- RA0327165A MSRP-21.50 Website-17.20
Pinion Crush spacer- R00427171A MSRP-10.00 Website-8.00
Pinion bearing #1- 060427220 MSRP-35.45 Website-28.36
Pinion bearing #2- R00127210 MSRP-61.20 Website-48.96

$202

I got mine from http://www.onlinemazdaparts.com a forum vendor. They also have great prices on coils

Then The install is going to cost $500 (note, this is just for the gear install, if you cant remove the diff yourself then it will probably cost around $800 bucks for the whole thing)

So this is a bare minimum $1300 install. But realistically this will probably cost you around $1700.

The shop in town specializes in transmissions. They said that the fittment was perfect and the backlash, meshing and preload set itself on the first try.

Maybe a lot of you haven’t heard of this before, but the 4.77 gear shortens the gear ratios for all the gears (shorten meaning that any given gear will seem to last shorter in comparison to driving speed). So driving around in third gear at 3000 rpm, you will no longer be at 30 mph but rather at some lower speed. Its a ratio difference so its not like this just raises every rpm by 1000 for any given speed but rather it will vary with what gear it is in.

4.77 means that the drive shaft coming from the transmission has to turn this gear 4.77 times in order to turn the wheels once. This is raised from the stock 4.44 gearing. This functions the same way that the low gear functions on your car or on a bike. Its very easy to turn the pedals because torque is amplified by the gears but you need to turn them very quickly to go fast. Luckily the RX8′s rotary engine has revs to spare and rather meek low end grunt. So this seems like the perfect mod to trade some revs for raw acceleration, this will let the rx8 zip through the gears right into the power band and be able to put more power to the ground in general.

Top speed is limited to about 163 mph now as opposed to the 185 ish limit of 6th gear now. So at about 9K in sixth gear you will be at 163 mph.

This drive promises a noticeable increase in torque in every gear.

chattering in video is only from the camera bouncing up and down, there was no background noise in the cabin other than the exhaust
http://videos.streetfire.net/video/10a68352-4964-4a40-83ff-99ad014d0acc.htm

Review:

This is easily the best mod out there for the N/A rx8. I honestly couldn’t feel my flywheel upgrade that much, but this is like 4x the difference that the flywheel felt like!

Even though it is pricey it really gives a lot of grunt to the rx8, Pulls feel stronger in every gear.

At 70 mph in sixth revs were at 3900

at 80 revs are 4400

at 85 revs are 4750

It is harder to drive though, engine braking is MUCH more pronounced. So I don’t really recommend this for someone who isn’t already well acquainted with rev-matching and smooth shifts.

Engine feels a lot more responsive and I can definitely notice MUCH more pull.

The gear is very silent, there are no abnormal noises from the differential. The gear is well made.

this easily tops my list for the best power mod to do for the RX8, really gives the car back some pull, makes it more fun to drive because it feels even more revvy than it already is.

Ground was wet outside so I couldn’t really do any serious starts because I wasn’t getting any traction in 1st gear.

It feels good, I’m very pleased with how this mod turned out and I will post some RX8 vs RX8 comparison vids when my buddy gets his out of the shop.

Overall, this makes my mod recommendation list:

1. Lightweight wheels
2. FINAL DRIVE
3. RP short shifter
4. AP pulley
5. coilovers & swaybars
6. flywheel
7. REVi + duct
8. test pipe + exhaust
9. mazmart water pump, gauges, koyo radiator, battery relocation, grounding kit, strut tower bars.

It Really is the best mod out there aside from some wheels <17 lbs (cause those help you not only in acceleration but also steering and braking)

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Install took about 1.5 hours, I went ahead and changed the coolant while I was at it. All the bolts on the water pump were 12mm, with 10mm bolts for the water pump pulley. Spillage wasn’t too bad when I had already drained the fluid out, soaked a rag that I placed underneath the opening, but no massive floods.

I would rate this install at slightly harder than the agency power pulley install, since you are dealing with spilling liquids.

Everything went smoothly, except, when you are replacing the new water pump, dont put the pulley on before the pump is in the car, if the pulley is in place you wont be able to slide a bolt into place.

Order by calling Mazmart directly:
1-800-221-5156

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__________________

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For the longer lasting platinum tipped plugs Just add a “P” to the end of each of the part numbers for the plugs, “BUR-7EQP”

You will need a washer to install the plugs in an RX8 due to the fact that previous plug housing reach in the RX7s and before has been 21mm. The RX8′s housing changed this to 19mm on the trailing side. The RX7 plugs are too long and the will press against the inside of the housing when tightened. Over several heating cycles this pressure will cause the housing to deform and give you low compression. You should start with a 3mm large washer, you should be able to find them at any autoparts store, or may be able to find them at places like Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc.

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Without having to pay $80 that Mazda currently charges?

Here is the DIY:

First order your choice of LEDs at http://www.superbrightleds.com/

I like these a lot better than those at autoillumination, I find those always burn out after a month or two.

Ok now we want the light bar category.
http://www.superbrightleds.com/cgi-b…oduct=BARS#LB3

Choose:

LB3 series LED Light Bar
Light Bar with 6 High Flux 60 Degree LEDs 10~14.5 VDC Operation
Bars are 4.32 inch long and include 5 inch long Interconnect Jumper and adhesive backed Plastic Mounting Track
Select LED Color
$ 3.95

Ok you have your choice of:

Cool white, warm white, blue, green, red, and amber.

So basically this mod will cost you under $10

Tools needed:

Wire cutters
Pliers
Wire Taps
Splices
Wire Crimps (optional)
4x 4in Length of 18, 20, 22 ga wire ( recommend 18 ga)

Step 1.

Locate the Correct wire tap location in this picture, the wire bundle we are seekind is the one that is going into the door, its hard to see but be sure to pick the correct location since there are wire duplicates in the car.

We are looking for a solid green wire with a black stripe, and a solid blue wire with a red stripe

Now use the wire taps and connect one of the 4 inch wire sections you already cut to these wires in the bundle, you may need to remove some electrical tape from the wire bundles to get them exposed like I have in the picture.

Now I found a good place to mount the LED bars were right on the clutch sensor under the dash, see picture:

The light bars come with their own length of wire with a connector on it to connect it to the strip itself. I cut this in half to get to exposed wire then stripped off 3-4mm section on the white wire and on the 4inch length we already cut. I spliced them together.

LEDs can only be connected one way but the light bars come with a reversible connector attached to the bar (black connector in the pic) so you can just connect it the other way to change the polarity and light up!

Ok Done!

Now for the passenger’s side

This bundle is a bit harder due to the fact that there is less space and less exposed wiring. It’s been a while but you may need to cut electrical tape off the bundles to get the wires exposed.

Again we are looking for a solid green wire with a black stripe, and a solid blue wire with a red stripe

Now the solid blue wire with a red stripe is connected to the bottom of a white connector attached to the car. Its hard to see in the picture but you can just make it out.

the solid green wire with a black stripe is inside the wire bundle to the left of the white harness connection you just made.

Do the same thing you did on the other side with the lengths of wire, taps and the splices.

Again don’t worry about if they don’t light up, you can flip the light bar connector around (little black connector in pic) and it will change the polarity so they will light up.

Done!

$10 footwell lights

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